Wrapped in God's love
Adapted from a testimony originally read during an online Wednesday testimony meeting of The Mother Church: ChristianScience.com/Wednesdays.
I recently experienced proof that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1). While visiting family, I was making a pot of soup. My brother-in-law was helping me, as I needed to puree the hot soup in the blender and then pour it back into the pot. However, instead of simply picking up the blender off its base, I accidentally unscrewed it from its bottom, and the full blender of steaming hot soup poured out over my hand.
“Hot! Hot! Hot!” I yelled. Soup was everywhere, and my hand felt like it was on fire. It was hard to keep the tears from coming. I left the mess with my brother-in-law, who graciously began cleaning it up, and I went to the living room to pray. I have had many healings through prayer and rely on God as an effective help in times of trouble. I began praying with “the scientific statement of being” found in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 468) but could not concentrate because of the pain.
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Then I recalled a friend commenting on the importance of not just knowing the truth, but also accepting it and really living it. So in this situation, I started by knowing that I was created as an idea of God—spiritual, whole, complete, and protected—and could not be harmed by doing something loving for my family. But then I also needed to accept this as the truth, not just a nice theory, and live it. This was a real struggle in that moment, but it cleared the way for another healing thought that I had recently been praying with.
One of the seven synonyms Mary Baker Eddy gives for God is Soul. I’d often thought of Soul as it relates to qualities of nurturing and nourishment. Cooking is one of the ways I most enjoy expressing God’s nurturing qualities and sharing that sense of Soul with my family. I affirmed that this expression could only bring blessings, not harm. Another quality of Soul is grace—the essence of God’s love that is given freely to us. I prayed to know that I could never be outside of God’s grace, and therefore couldn’t really express “ungracefulness,” despite what it looked like in the kitchen.
I started to feel better and went back to the kitchen to help with the cleanup. My brother-in-law also had been praying and reminded me that I did not have to wait for a change in the condition of my hand to feel better. This helped a lot, and I stopped checking my hand, which was still bright red, though less painful. Anytime I was tempted to check to see if my hand was better, I remembered that I could never be apart from Soul, or from God’s grace. These thoughts brought great comfort, and by the end of dinner I felt much better.
That night, I went to bed feeling wrapped in God’s love and woke up the next morning feeling perfectly well, with no signs of a burn.
Kim Hedge
Washington, DC, US
